The Beagle's Knitting Blog

Is Jack the Beagle Feeling the Sweater Love?

2012-01-21T19:26:00.002-06:00

Jack in his DROPS 102-42 dog sweater in madeline tosh DK

"Are you ready to knit 12 sweaters in 2012?" was the gauntlet thrown smack! down at ravelry.com. Twelve sweaters ... why, that's one a month...

The rules of engagement:

"A “sweater” can consist of a pullover, cardigan, vest, shrug, bolero, etc. Basically any kind of clothing for the upper body. It can be any size- adult, child, baby, or pet sized. Unfinished objects count too, so pull out that half-knitted sweater that’s been at the back of your closet for ages! Sweaters can be knit at your own pace; they don’t have to be finished by the last day of the month."

Sweater #1 is a for my daughter's wedding trip this summer. This is Sweater #2:

I have been eyeing this pattern for awhile. Its largest size is cocker spaniel. Beagles are generally larger than cockers and Jack is no exception, particularly his chest. To size up the sweater, I went from the recommended #4 needle to a #7. That worked just fine.

Two down. Will there be more sweaters this year?

Happy News

2011-12-28T15:52:00.000-06:00

Early in December, we got wonderful news: our older daughter and her boyfriend have decided to get married this summer. You should see the way our daughter lights up when she is around this terrific guy.

If you're a knitter, you'll understand why this called for breaking the Good Stuff out of the stash - in this case, the fabulously soft and warm Shokay yak yarn. It looks velvety soft in the photo cuz it is.

Ian in his Men's Ski Hat designed by Irina Dmitrieva, knit in Shambala Shokay Yak

This is a hat that can stand up to whatever a Wisconsin winter throws at Ian when he visits from Ohio.

Not the best phone picture evah but how cute are they together!

So now starts the fun and excitement of helping a wedding come together!

Merry Kissmas and Fleas Navidad from The Beagle's Knitting Blog

2011-12-22T11:02:00.000-06:00

Cleo in her Capucine knit in Lamb's Pride Bulky (85% wool, 15% mohair) in Frosted Periwinkle

Home for Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T15:22:00.000-06:00

... and rocking the cozy handknits.

Wood Hollow Hat and Mittens in Shelter (Thistle ) and Inspira Cowl in Malabrigo Silky Merino (Teal Feather) and Pagewood Farm Alyeska (Misty) and Scallop Lace Hat in Malabrigo Silky Merino

Which?

2011-11-06T10:36:00.000-06:00

It's time to knit Jack the beagle a new coat. Will you help me decide? Click on the links below. If you have a preference, leave a comment below. Suggest one not on the list, if you like.

Barkberry (Burberry-inspired)

Puppies on Parade (fair isle)

Knitted Dog Coat with Traditional Norwegian Pattern (Scandihoovian-inspired)

The Season of Secret Knitting Has Begun

2011-10-24T14:02:00.000-05:00

So, I'll show you what came in the mail today. It was an extraordinarily great haul.

First package opened was an order from Knit Purl in Portland, Oregon.

The color is Thistle. With it, came three bags of tea from Steven Smith Teamaker, hands down the most beautiful bags of tea I have ever encountered. Thanks for the tea, Knit Purl!

Then I opened a package from Knitcircus. It was my prize from the Knitcircus Dolcetta Shawl KAL.

I won a pattern from Bijou Basin for their Bandolier Cardi-Pullover ("Is it a cardigan or a pullover?") You can see it better here. But that's not all ...

Knitcircus also sent along a 40-yd. sample of merino laceweight from Rocky Mountain Dyeworks. Thanks, Knitcircus and Bijou Basin!

Oh, and this came, too ...

Icelandic knitting sure seems to be on the radar recently. I myself have plans for an Icelandic shawl once the Season of Secret Knitting is over.

All this and the WEBS Holiday catalog, too! How adorable is their selection of Lantern Moon stitch markers.

Ullared Hat

2011-10-10T09:58:00.002-05:00

Ullared Hat in Unspun Icelandic and Dolcetto Shawl in Fleece Artist Merino 2/6

"Brought to Iceland by the Viking settlers some 1,100 years ago, the Icelandic sheep is one of the world's oldest and purest breeds... " - from The Knitter's Book of Wool

It is also one of the warmest yarns. You buy unspun Icelandic by the 300-yard wheel. A display of these wheels - natural greys and browns and beiges, amethyst purple, cayenne, and sumac red - greets you at the door. They're intriguing so when he amethyst purple colorway matched a shawlette I had just finished, I bought a wheel plus another of grey for a hat.

Unspun Icelandic is a yarn which inspires intense love or intense loathing, I’m guessing. I love the colors and the warmth. Count me as Not A Fan of the unspun aspect. A very light hand is required to knit with this yarn. Pull at all - and I mean at all - and it wisps apart.

"Use a light hand when pulling the wool from the wheel until the center hole is large enough to permit the wool to flow freely. If the strand should break, simply overlap the ends, moisten your palm, and rub the two strands together for a ‘spit-splice’. " - Schoolhouse Press instructional sheet

To combat the wispy aspect of the yarn, I threw the completed hat into a pillowcase, wound a rubber band around to secure, and threw the thing into the washing machine. A wash in hot water later, the hat was perfectly felted.

A fun feature of the pattern is to add your initials in a little box. Do you see mine above the sold line of purple?

Stashing Down: Dolcetta

2011-10-07T08:45:00.002-05:00

Stashing down with Fleece Artist Merino 2/6, colorway Pixie

Does sock yarn count as stash? I admit to four all-purpose bags full, although there might be five.

Whether or not stockpiling sock yarn is guilt-free, this skein of Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 didn't hang out in my stash for more than a month. Along came a KAL for the Dolcetto shawlette from Knitcircus. It was a simple matter of opening my cedar chest, pulling out the plastic bags stuffed with sock yarn, and choosing what I liked best that day.

But now I might need a hat to go with this Dolcetto shawlette. Winter is coming. This is Wisconsin. It gets cold. I'm out of this yarn. My source for this yarn is out of this colorway. What to do, what to do ...

Go to the local yarn store! See if they don't have something that coordinates.

But of course. The stash that goes down must come up again. I'll show you what I found on Monday.

Barns, Yarns, and a Pair o' Mitts

2011-09-30T16:52:00.000-05:00

Click on any photo to make larger.

If it's the first weekend in October, it's Hidden Studios Tour. It's an annual self-guided visit to eight studios, each showcasing three artists. The leaves are at their colorful peak, there's coffee and cookies and time to talk with the artists. We look forward to it every year.

So, this morning, we hopped in the Jeep and bumped over the country roads, past red barns and fall foliage to our first stop this year: Peaceable Acres Farm . This is a fiber arts studio and producer of really beautiful, quality yarn. I mean, when you park next to pasture with grazing sheep and alpacas, you know there's farm-fresh fiber ahead.

And there was and in lots of colors and bases. I chose superfine Alpaca handspun in natural white and brown-with-gray. Ohhhh, is it softer than soft! There's enough to make a Lillia Hyrna Shawl or an Icelandic Modern Lace Shawl

Wanted for Attempted Yarn Harassment

The weather was changeable, going from sunny to rainy to sunny to rainy again. I was glad I had thought to tuck these into my coat pocket .

They're the pattern that comes with the Dream in Color 2011-2010 Dream Club yarn for September. You don't sign up for a year or six months or even three months. You don't commit in advance at all, unlike most yarn clubs. Here are the details from a seller I have not yet used. I bought mine at a bricks-and-mortar store.

To finish the week, how about a photo of Jack the beagle crunching around in the autumn leaves?

Sniff sniff sniff sniff snifff

By Request

2011-09-26T10:33:00.000-05:00

So, we’re at Lakeside Fibers in Madison and Thomasina sees an Inspira Cowl in Koigu KPPM. “Can you make me one?” she asks.

It really was a beautiful object. Of course, I was excited to get my hands on enough Koigu to make the cowl. Instead, Thomasina chose Malabrigo Silky Merino in the Teal Feather colorway and Pagewood Farm Alyeska in Misty.

Hmmmm, I thought. About that lighter Alyeska colorway, should there maybe be more color action? No, Thomasina assured me. Those were the two yarns she wanted for her cowl.

I love the way it turned out. Very clean and nordic to my eyes.

There was even enough of the teal Malabrigo for a little something extra. See it poking out of the coat pocket?

It's a slouchy Scallop Lace Hat. Talk about a lightning-fast knit! I started and finished it during a Friday-evening mini-marathon of American Restoration. Great show for those of us who enjoy working with our hands.

Recent Acquisition Highlight

2011-09-23T11:02:00.000-05:00

View yarn that has recently been added to The Beagle's Knitting Blog collection.

Dream in Color
American

September 2011
70% Superwash Merino, 20% Cashmere, 10% Nylon
210 yards
Sow's Ear, Verona, Wisconsin

On the Needles: Inspira Cowl

2011-09-19T09:24:00.003-05:00

Nala pretending to ignore: a) yarn and b) dangling stitch marker in the shape of a sheep

Perfect travel knitting would be ...

portable
simple enough to put down and pick-up at a moment's notice
interesting enough to not be boring.

My current nominee is Celery Stalked's Inspira Cowl. I took it to Iowa and back to attend Tom's 50th high school reunion weekend. It traveled beautifully.

Inspira cowl is a big circle of ribbing in two yarns. In the case of mine, it's one solid yarn and one lightly variegated, one DK-weight and one fingering. It hits every one of the three musts of travel knitting: it's portable, simple, and interesting.

Bonus: no two Inspira Cowls look the same. This is the one I'm making now up close ...

The yarns are Mmmmmmalabrigo Silky Merino in the Teal Feather colorway and Pagewood Farm Aleyska in Misty. Imagine the potential of Kauni or Noro Kureyon. The version at Lakeside Fibers in Madison is in Koigu KPPM, if I remember right. It's fabulous, as all things Koigu tend to be.

Fall Color

2011-09-14T11:10:00.002-05:00

Look what the mailman brought this morning!

It's from the Loopy Ewe. Everyone who completed all three Camp Loopy projects on time receives a free pattern and skein of ... ready? ...

This is my skein. Yes, that's the rare, elusive, and highly-coveted Wollmeise The colorway is subtly variegated cobalt blue. You can supersize any of the photos by clicking on them. I don't know if the Wollmeise will become a pair of Argylers, the pattern that arrived with this yarn. I expect to have a lovely time deciding.

After all, how many pairs of mittens can one person really use? I am in the middle of Hilja's Mittens from Folk Knitting in Estonia by Nancy Bush.

Good job on that thumb, eh?

The yarn is Vuorelma Satakieli frogged from a Latvian mitten project I decided I didn't like enough relative to the amount of work going into it. I'm finding this project a lot more fun.

"Sandals-and-Socks Guy, We're A Lot Like You: A Little Different"

2011-09-09T09:37:00.002-05:00

A sandals-and-socks guy lives in my house. It doesn't matter how many times I whine, "It's a European mathematician look!". He just likes wearing socks with sandals.

So, I made him these in a comfy bamboo yarn that long ago lost its label. Right after this photo, he put on his Ecco sandals and left the combo on all evening.

Retro Rib Socks in some kind of bamboo yarn

He was comfy. He was happy. And I was doing my best not to think of the European mathematicians I worked for 30 years ago.

Camp Loopy

2011-09-05T08:49:00.000-05:00

I used to believe that

Button from Gumperina Goes to Local Yarn Shops and Home Depot

I had never made a sweater that: a) fit and b) looked as good as the time and money I invested in making it. Then I made

Indigo by Tonia Barry in Cascade 220, Colorway: Beagle Brown (okay, Pumpkin Spice)

It's my third and final project for this summer's Camp Loopy. What's Camp Loopy? It was a three-project challenge from the The Loopy Ewe, everyone's favorite online yarn store. The month of June's challenge was a two-color shawl, scarf, or poncho.

Furrows Shawl in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock

July's Challenge 2 was socks or mittens with cables. I knit

Cozy Cable Socks in Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock

August's Challenge 3 was any kind of project using 800 or more yards. I decided to push myself and make a cardigan requiring a little less than twice the minimum.

Front edge detail. The i-cord bind-off was new to me on this project.

As you can guess, the Viking-inspired cables were incredibly fun. They wind around the front edge and up the forearm of the sleeves.

The whole Camp Loopy experience was incredibly fun. It was fun to see the way hundreds of other "campers" handled the three challenges. It was fun to get help from Tom with color choices. It was fun to get help from one of my fashion consultants, a.k.a. our daughter Thomasina, on the choice of cardigan pattern.

See you next summer, Camp Loopy!

If Your Socks Are Purple, Let Them Be PURPLE

2011-08-05T07:06:00.000-05:00

These Cozy Cable Socks are for Tom, who is nothing if not open-minded when it comes to socks or, really, anything except British movies. He claims he can’t understand a #@$#%^% word.

Fine, Colin Firth and I prefer to be alone anyway.

Survival Knitting

2011-07-28T06:58:00.003-05:00

Cozy Cable Socks knit on #1 dpns for size 12 Tomfeet. Not the speediest project ever.

Here's the situation: the heat index is 110 and humidity is at 80 or 90%. The power is down because of the windstorm; it's going to stay down for hours (it turned out to be a couple of days). Three old and beautiful trees came down in the storm. The tree guys you just hired get $500/hour. Everything in the fridge and freezer is spoiling. You cannot flush the toilet and any water you drink is bottled. No one died and your house is okay, if uncomfy. What do you do?

You knit so you don't kill people.

Every knitter in the universe knows this. What you choose to knit when the going gets tense is less universal. For myself, it's sock knitting. The smaller the needles, the fussier the pattern, the better.

I am aided and abetted in this by Tom's willingness to be a wild-socks kind of guy. He will gladly wear just about anything, likes just about anything. So, I grabbed a skein of Cascade Yarns Heritage Sock Yarn in Hyacinth Purple and cast on in a pattern loaded with cables. Click on the photos to see detail.

A week later, there is one completed sock and 1/4 of its mate. The power is long since back on, the fridge and freezer cleaned out, and the tree-removal bill is undoubtedly on its way to our mailbox.

One down, one to go.

Road Trip! Furrows Shawl

2011-07-09T09:05:00.001-05:00

Travel knitting: Furrows Shawl by Miriam Felton in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock

We've got the Wisconsin-to-Wyoming drive down to a science:

Night 1: Pipestone, Minnesota. Pipestone National Monument is the old quarry for the red stone from which Indians carved peace pipes. The walk around the sacred quarry includes fields of prairie flowers, a rushing river, and even a waterfall.

Night 2: Wall, South Dakota. Wall Drug is America's favorite roadside attraction. Black Hills gold for sale, threadbare jackalopes and singing cowboy animatronics from the 1950's, original artwork from dime novels about cowboys and Indians, donuts, and free ice water - it's all the same year after year after year.

Night 3: Buffalo, Wyoming. You'll have time for a visit to Devil's Tower National Monument on the way. Once you arrive in Buffalo, a stroll through the lobby and saloon of the Occidental Hotel will have you wondering if maybe there is such a thing as time travel.

Do you knit in the car? If you're looking for travel knitting, I recommend the Furrows Shawl pattern, It's straightforward enough that you can easily find your place but not so mindless that it becomes a slog.

This thing is knit lengthwise, which means a cast-on of 514 stitches

It's knit with fingering-weight on #3 circs so it offers lots of knitting time for the buck and the space in your suitcase. Do you love how the stitches are on the bias, yet the top of the shawl is straight?

What's in Your Knitting Bag?

2011-06-21T16:53:00.002-05:00

My new zippered bag for notions like stitch markers and scissors

How many of these items do you have in your knitting bag? (The list is from My Little Knitting Book: A Quick Reference, a booklet by Joan Sheridan.)

Yarn darner
Sharp small scissors and theadcutter pendant
Crochet hooks (D,J, Steel 10)
Stitch markers (more than one kind)
Cable needles and/or spare double points
Stitch holders (two of each size)
Smooth yarn for provisional cast ons, holding stitches and making emergency stitch markers
Plastic seaming pins and/or Knit Klips
Point protectors
Row counter and calculator
Blocking pins
Tape measure
Small ruler
Needle gauge
Pen, pencil, & highlighter
Sticky notes and removeable highlighter tape
Zippered bag for notions
Business cards for your favorite yarn stores
Nail file and hand cream

I can check off maybe 1/4 of that list. I always put in: small scissors, row counter, tape measure, needle gauge, tiny wooden crochet hook for dropped stitches, cable needle, big-eyed sewing needle for kitchenering sock toes.

As of two days ago, I no longer just toss that stuff loose into a tote bag. I treated myself to a little zippered notions bag. I can keep it pre-loaded and just toss the thing into my knitting bag. Now I'm considering upgrading my tape measure to something from Lantern Moon. That sheep and bumblebee crack me up. Or should I keep with the egg theme I have going with the notions bag and go for the hen?

Zipper pull detail on my new notions bag. Shiny!

Ulmus Shawl

2011-06-12T09:51:00.001-05:00

Hand Maiden's Casbah (81% merino, 9% cashmere, 10% nylon) in Nova Scotia casting an accusing and defiant eye

Not going for twee here but yarn pretty much does tell a knitter what it wants to be and what it doesn't want to be. This is not a case of Chitty Chitty Bang Bangitis or enchantment or lunacy. It's simply that you may purchase yarn with the reasonable idea of making it into one thing but find that it doesn't look or behave as expected.

My skein of Casbah in Nova Scotia didn't want to be socks. Now, I have used the same yarn in a different colorway for a pair of mansocks. It was wonderful, perfect. Magnificent, even. This encouraged me to insist a little more than normal. I made two attempts to force the issue, first with a baby-cable pattern, then with a slip-stitch pattern. The yarn won out. My mistake: there are other uses for sock yarn than socks, of course. Baby clothing comes to mind. Scarves, fingerless mitts, wraps. It's simply a matter of taking full advantage of the yarn's relative lightness and colorways.

The pattern is Ulmus. It's a slip-stitch pattern calling for two rows of Yarn A followed by two rows of Yarn B. Some use contrasting yarns but I happened to have a complimentary yarn on hand. This is the result:

Yarn B is Shibui Knits Sock (100% superwash merino) in Emerald. I bought it online, thinking it was a solid. Yeah, it's a self-striper in shades of green. See?

I didn't love it for socks. I do love it as contrast and edging for this shawl.

Nice shawl, stash down by four skeins (one of the blues/greens and three of the emerald). Happy ending, right?

And so I, too, believed. Then the Loopy Ewe decided to put on Camp Loopy - details of what that is in the link. The first project is a scarf or shawl or cape in two colors to be knit between mid-June and mid-July.

So, yeah, I'm in. Let's see what an Ulmus Shawl from these two skeins of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock will look like.

My BFFs

2011-05-20T08:20:00.000-05:00

Pattern: BFF by Cookie A
Yarn: On Your Toes Bamboo

Sock-Knitting Confessions

2011-04-21T13:57:00.001-05:00

Hof off the needles are these Mona Socks, pattern by Cookie A., yarn by S.R. Kertzer On Your Toes Bamboo

Your mileage may vary but ...

1. I never do a gauge swatch for socks. For men's socks, a set of #2 dpns and 60ish stitches and we're good to go. For women, the same but a set of #1s. Socks are usually stretchy.

2. A sock yarn with bamboo in it is best. I like Boofly Sock (60% merino, 30% bamboo, 10% nylon) the best to work with, to wear, and to wash. It's dreamy.

3. I've yet to suffer from SSS or Second Sock Syndrome.

"Second Sock Syndrome. This is an affliction that prevents the victim from knitting the second sock of a pair." - Common Abreviations and Phrases Found in Sockknitters Mailing List

4. There are sock patterns I had to slog through. The iconic and widely-beloved Monkey left me stone cold.

5. I'm impervious to the charms of magic loop,

knitting two socks at a time,

novel cast-ons,

and afterthought heels which really seem like a solution without a problem. Hello, it's a sock and you forgot to knit a heel???

That afterthought heel baffles me..

6. I'm enjoying the Knit. Sock. Love. KAL on ravelry.com. We have a choice of two for each month with the option to knit only one or both, however you like. So far, I've knit one a month. The Mona Sock at the top of this entry is April's sock.

6. I like color pooling. The boldness and surprise are part of the fun.

7. My all-time favorite sock pattern is Cascade Locks.

Laurel, Beret with Bobbles and Poetry

2011-04-16T12:56:00.001-05:00

Laurel, pattern from Brooklyn Tweed

It's April. We're at the very beginning of what e. e. cummings called "just-Spring when the world is mud-luscious". There's a vase of the first daffodils from the garden on the kitchen table and rain/sleet/snow outside.

I spent the morning finishing this hat.

The yarn is Shibui Knits Baby Alpaca DK, as soft as a breeze, as soft as snow. "The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches," says e.e. cummings.

Happy National Poetry Month!

[in Just-]

in Just-

spring when the world is mud-

luscious the little

lame balloonman

whistles far and wee

and eddieandbill come

running from marbles and

piracies and it's

spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer

old balloonman whistles

far and wee

and bettyandisbel come dancing

from hop-scotch and jump-rope and

it's

spring

and

the

goat-footed

balloonMan whistles

far

and

wee

-e.e.cummings

Orchidaceous

2011-04-12T10:10:00.000-05:00

Pattern: Orchid Thief by Ysolda Teague

Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool

Tom and I have been traveling a little bit, giving talks about our upcoming book. This is the knitting that came along.

There's serious errata for the pattern and some ambiguity, as well. For me, it would have been unknittable without the help notes for the pattern at http://www.ravelry.com.

The Sea Wool is fingering weight, 70% merino, 30% seacell, which is made from seaweed. Some have issues with this yarn for socks but I loved working with it for this shawlette.

Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi

2011-03-29T08:10:00.000-05:00

Finally, there is photogenic knitting to show you! We have a little girl's first birthday coming up and you know that calls for something neat, sweet, and petite...

Tiny Tea Leaves Cardi, modified to have short sleeves

And also machine-washable! It's a bit much to expect a toddler's mom to wash clothes any other way. To that end, the yarn is Cascade 220 Superwash in a medium-lightish pink. Maybe you recognize it from the College Afghan I made for Cleo last year. The sweater required 1 1/4 balls.

I switched out the long sleeves for short sleeves. This kind of yoke looks very cute over a long-sleeved shirt, maybe even a turtleneck next fall.

The tiny cute buttons I picked up at a tiny cute fabric store in Healdsburg, California. If you're in Wine Country, Healdsburg makes a nice stop for lunch and window shopping, then coffee in the main square and dog watching as the locals walk their dogs.

LOVe Shawlette

2011-03-14T08:21:00.000-05:00

LOVe Shawlette, pattern by Anne Hanson available on PDF from http://knitspot.com/, Softie Lite yarn by Kimmet Croft (25% angora, 75% merino)

This past weekend, I weeded out the unwanted and unused books and magazines from my knitting book shelves. I was ruthless, brutal! The local Goodwill now has a nice stock of knitting books.

With the exception of any book by Nancy Bush, Cookie A, Barbara Walker, Melissa Leapman, Laura Irwin, or Clara Parkers, my knitting book-buying future is going to be books on techniques/stitch dictionaries. I am not going to renew my subscription to Vogue Knitting.

What I am going to do is buy PDFs of knitting patterns, since the internet now makes it possible to buy only the patterns I want. Some designers who sell only PDFs do not always sell individual designs but bundle a collection of designs. I wish they wouldn't. Mandatory bundling has kept me from purchasing several times. I would rather be given the possibility of either buying an individual pattern or a specially-priced bundle.

LOVe Shawlette, made for my sister in the smaller or scarf size

For storage, I print out the pattern and store it in a plastic sleeve filed in a binder. The plastic sleeve keeps the pattern clean and together. More importantly, the sleeve has the three-hole punch on it so I don't have to punch holes in the pages themselves. I have two binders. One binder is for Feet and Head (socks, hats), the other is everything else.

Marilinda

2011-03-06T18:33:00.002-06:00

You may have heard about what's happening in Wisconsin. I taught French and future French teachers at one of the University of Wisconsin campuses for 14 years. All told, I taught college French for 20 years.

My husband taught Anthropology and Public Health at the University of Wisconsin for 38 years. Both of us were proud members of The Association of University of Wisconsin Professionals and Tom was a union officer. Tom and I stand with the teachers. Our governor is weak. Unwillingess to compromise is a sign of weakness in a politician, not strength.

Spring is in the air! Okay, no but these socks are the color of the first violets that will pop up on our lawn in about ...two months' time.

The socks are Marilinda from Cookie A's new book Knit. Sock. Love. Cables! Lace! Look at that heel! You can see they were crazy fun to knit. The yarn languished in my stash for a handful of years. It's Opal UNI and part of a super-saver grab bag of Opal sock yarns from Little Knits.

Knitting with a Float-Stitch Pattern

2011-02-08T08:54:00.003-06:00

The jacket copy for The Knitter's Guide to Hand-Dyed and Variegated Yarn stabbed me in the shoulder with its forefinger and demanded, "Do you covet the gorgeous colors of multicolored yarns but have been disappointed by patching, poolisng, and other unintended 'designs' that develop as they're knitted?"

Normally, I'd keep moving but this was help of the expert kind for a really common knitting problem. And such help! The author is the epicenter of variegated yarns herself, Lorna Miser of Lorna's Laces. Is the book one big ad for Lorna's Laces yarn? Not at all. It features yarns from Art Yarns, Brown Sheep, Farmhouse Yarns, Fiesta Yarns, Hand Pinted Knitting Yarns, Jade Sapphire, Mountain Colors, Prism Yarn, Schaefer, and Twisted Sisters, as well.

Beautiful, clear photos. Eleven well-written instructional chapters. Twenty patterns. My only complaint is that the book should be hardcover. It will have a permanent place in my knitting library and it will get lots of use. Hard-cover lasts better.

Handmaiden Casbah Sock Yarn (80% superwash merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon, 355 yds) in the Peacock colorway

I've decided to knit the book. It's the only way I will internalize what Lorna Miser has to teach. Heaven knows I have plenty of variegated yarn in the stash. First up is this fingering-weight. It is a washable blend of merino and cashmere.

Lorna Miser calls the colorway "calm", not because it is a mixture of cool blues and greens but because

"A calm colorway is one in which one color blends into the next with no single color making a bold statement. A calm colorway may be monochromatic; that is, it may be formed from many gentle shades of one color ... Colorways in which all the colors are similar in intensity can also be called calm... A calm colorway can also look like a watercolor painting, where the colors blend and soak into each other gently without any harsh edges, sometimes making it hard to tell where one color ends and the next one begins... When these colors are knit, even in stockinette, they may pool or pattern, but the colors are gentle and flowing and the pooling will be subtle and understated." - Lorna Miser

Lorna Miser warns that a variegated yarn tends to make a swirling pattern when knit up as a sock. That can be a pretty - if unintended- effect but for a subtler blend of color, she advises a simple horizontal float-stitch pattern. You could use the Swag or Scallop Stitch which you can find, among other places, in Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns or Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book. Lorna Miser has an interesting Checkered Float Stitch for a pair of what she calls Blue Ray Socks after the colorway she uses. I'll call mine Peacock Ray Socks. Here's how they are knitting up...

The float stitch is helping to blend the colors and make the sock more subtle.

Prairie Rose Lace Shawl

2011-01-30T12:27:00.000-06:00

Prarie Rose Lace Shawl in Jojoland Melody, hot off the needles

In a while, I will put on some boots
and step out like someone walking in water,
and the dog will porpoise through the drifts,
and I will shake a laden branch
sending a cold shower down on us both.

But for now I am a willing prisoner in this house,
a sympathizer with the anarchic cause of snow.
I will make a pot of tea
and listen to the plastic radio on the counter,
as glad as anyone to hear the news

-from "Snow Day" by Billy Collins

I blocked the edge straight, rather than spiky as called for on the pattern. because I like it better.

Harald

2011-01-25T16:40:00.001-06:00

Harald Mittens, pattern by Elsebeth Lavold, wool by Brown Sheep Lanaloft Worsted, knitting triumph by me

I've been breathlessly reading blogs about the Vogue Knitting confab in NYC this past weekend. Wouldn't it be fun to fly into NYC, stay in the conference hotel, take classes, meet famous designers and bloggers, and stroll past the yarn vendors saying I'll take this, this, and some of this? On the other hand, think how much Koigu KPPPM the $2,000 or so it would cost to attend could buy!

It would have been fun, though. Thanks especially to Anne Hanson's blog for all the vicarious food photos - not only did I save money by not going, I saved calories!

No, instead of rubbing elbows with the knitting stars and buying dizzying amounts of yarn, I knit away on the Prairie Rose Shawl. It'll be ready for viewing in a few days. In the meantime, let's celebrate staying home, knitting down the stash, being finally able to decipher an Elsebeth Lavold chart, and National Knit Mittens Month with my Haralds, Viking-inspired cuffs and all.

The Day after the Third Monday of January

2011-01-18T09:44:00.001-06:00

If you cross a soap opera with an historical bodice-ripper romance novel, you get "Downton Abbey". Are you watching?

I do find myself wishing that the women of the manor would make a trip to Paris. Mademoiselle Chanel's shop on the rue de Cambon opened for business in 1913. She was already freeing women's bodies by eliminating the corset and working with jersey.

In honor of the corseted women of Downton Abbey upstairs and downstairs, I've taken up a quasi-Edwardian knitting project. It's Evelyn Clark's Prairie Rose Shawl. The yarn is Jojoland Melody is a subtle shift of color from sage to lilac.

In the meantime, please do not tell Jack the beagle that the third Monday of January is (statistically) the most depressing day of the year.

Stashing up

2011-01-11T09:34:00.002-06:00

Sing along if you know the tune. If you're a knitter, I bet you do.

My knitting for a recent weekend away was all about starting a pair of socks from yarn from the (embarrassingly vast) supply in my cedar chest.
See my knitting bag all packed?

Knitting book with pattern - check! Yarn from stash - check! Needles - check!

It was even more virtuous than that. The yarn was reclaimed from a half-knit pair of socks that had languished for several years in the cedar chest. I frogged the one knit sock and wound the yarn into a ball. Into the ball I stuck a set of #1 dpns.

I never touched any of it all weekend.

Long story short, new yarn came into my life via Lakeside Fibers in Madison. My daughter Thomasina wondered could I make her a hat just like the one on the model by the front window? With this thick-and-thin nubbly Arucania Liwen?

Infinity Hat inspired by anthropologie in Arucania Liwen (50% superfine alpaca, 50% wool)

Uh, yep. I can do that. In fact, on #10 needles, I did it before her bus back to college left.

Well, I was buying the yarn for Thomasina's hat anyway, why not buy myself that pretty ball of Noro Silk Garden?

My new ball of Noro Silk Garden in the act of becoming a hat

And then I saw some nice Mmmmmmmalabrigo in an inky blue and Tom has a birthday coming up and ... I bought that, too.

You know that some of the best yarn stores have an attached café, right? That's where I headed next. A latte + a gingersnap cookie + yarn fondling is not a terrible way to spend time. I sat in a happy daze and Tom and Thomasina went around the corner into the yarn part of the store.

Tom came back with MORE yarn - surprise gift yarn - for me! It's a kit for a shawl.

Really, life doesn't get much better.

Seasonable Activity (and the Lack Thereof)

2011-01-07T11:02:00.001-06:00

Snowbound beagle

For Jack the beagle, it is Snowbound Season. If the mercury dips below 15 degrees Farenheit, walks are brief and more of a hustle against the elements than an opportunity to sniff out regulars and interlopers. Chilly days are passed between watching the street from the big windows and long snoozes. There are soulful beagle eyes and long beagle sighs.

For me, it is Knitting Season. These socks came off the needles this morning. They're Pointelle from Cookie A's new book, knit. sock. love. When Thomasina put them on to model for the camera, she exclaimed, "I love the fit!". That's the design, more than the knitting. See that nice, stretchy lace that travels down the foot and also wraps around the ankle?

January is NaKniMitMo

2011-01-01T19:36:00.000-06:00

That's National Knit Mittens Month and I've got plans. Big plans.

Waving Lace Socks in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Solid

But first, let's talk socks.. These came off the needles last night. They're for my younger daughter. She heads back to college in only two days.

As for NaKniMitMo, I'm joining others on ravelry.com and planning on 11 pairs of mittens or gloves in 2011. Living in Wisconsin as I do, it won’t be difficult to find a use for 11 pairs of mittens. Probably they’ll be gifts for family.

I plan to try different techniques. Baltic mittens - how’s that for a theme? I can do Elsebeth Lavold’s Viking knits, Bohus colorwork, selbuvotter, and Latvian colorwork and it all stays in that theme.

I'm also knitting my way through Cookie A's Knit. Sock. Love.

There will be a lot to show you this year.

Fleas Navidad from The Beagle's Knitting Blog!

2010-12-20T13:55:00.002-06:00

Snowbound beagle

Also, Fleece Navidad ...

So. much. snow. last weekend and another 3-5" due this afternoon into this evening! You do get a lot of knitting done. In fact, file this under Exhibit A:

These are Tom's Christmas present from me. I handed him the Selbuvotter book and said, "Which one?". He chose Annemor #7.

"The Eddas tell of Yggdrasil, the tree that supports the world and the four stags that feed on its shoots and bark. The reindeer here is nibbling on a sprout, reminding us of the ancient story". - Terri Shea in Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition.

I had been hoping for one of the easier mittens. No, I was assured, gloves would be better. These gloves with reindeer and little trees and suns and triangles and flowers.

I drew in my lips, slid my glasses down my nose, and peered at the particulars of the knitting pattern. This would be the first pair of gloves I had ever knitted. Still, maaaaaybe I could pull this off.

We drove to Wisconsin Wool Exchange and I said, "Choose two colors."

There are many beautiful choices in this little shop. Tom went right for the Wall o' Kimmet Croft - which is pretty much the epicenter of my knitting universe - and picked an off-white and a cobalt blue called Iris in sportweight. The yarn is 25% angora and 75% merino so there is a bit of a halo. It's the nicest yarn I have ever worked with.

And so, I sat down to try to knit these fancy Nordic gloves. It was very fun, spurred on as I was by the fast-approaching Christmas deadline and an intense desire to succeed in wupping Viking glove tushie. I wanted to give Tom my best.

This is it: my personal best in knitting, as of December 2010.

One Small Shawl Promptly Knit

2010-12-04T09:33:00.004-06:00

A small shawl of big lace in big wool on big needles

Itinerary for a day visit to Madison, Wisconsin:

lunch and Delta blues at Smokey Jon's. I highly recommend the smoked beef brisket sandwich platter.
fabric shopping at Gayfeather Fabrics, home -as they say - to the funky and the fine..

Lace on size 9 needles with worsted-weight yarn is great for semi-mindless travel knitting

yarn oggling at Lakeside Fibers. New management has made positive changes and now, once again, the store is a comfortable and inspiring place to browse while your non-knitting day-tripping SO lingers over a leisurely coffee and scone in the coffee room.

Haul from this day visit:

four horn-and-metal buttons for my winter coat.
a pattern for an apron and fabric for two aprons

Hawthorne is a small shawl - scarf hybrid.

2 skeins Dream in Color Classy, colorway Happy Forest and inspiration to make Hawthorne from the Twist Collective. It was the in-shop model of Hawthorne that hooked me. Some things you just have to see in person, evidently.

Progress on Madison acquisitions to the stash:

horn-and-metal replacement coat buttons promptly attached to winter coat
one apron promptly made and promptly given to Tom's stepmother on a recent visit. One side of the apron was an olive-turquoise-silver-purple graphic of a peacock, strangely 12 Days of Christmas-y. On the other side was purple faux ikat. It's a reversible apron.
one Hawthorne promptly knit on the trip to Iowa to see Tom's father in hospice.

Hawthorne

The Divine Miss E

2010-12-02T15:58:00.000-06:00

And here's Miss E looking sweet and chic in Kristen Rengren's #27 Vintage Baby Dress from Vogue Knitting, Holiday 2009. The yarn is Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet DK (90% Merino, 10% Nylon) so her mom can pop it in the wash and low dryer. The look is versatile - wear it as a dress as Miss E does here or a tunic over wee blue jeans.

Thanks to Miss E's mom for the beautiful photo!

Mittenz

2010-11-22T15:14:00.000-06:00

Drying after blocking.

On an impulse, I answered an art student's plea for test knitters. You know what I got out of the experience? A helluva pair of mittens.

The yarn is KnitPicks Palette in a pale pink and an azalea pink called Ladyslipper.

The designer is Elin Brissman. The pattern is Zelda's Not So Lonely Anymore. You can find both designer and design at ravelry.com.

Mine! Mine! Mine!

2010-11-14T09:34:00.001-06:00

Annemor #5 from Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition

Each day the Norse god Odin sent his two ravens to fly all over the world. Thought and Memory were their names and here they are on my mittens. See their beating wings?

The pattern is sized for a Child's Small but by using worsted-weight and #3 (cuffs) and #6 (hand) needles, I easily upsized them to fit my Woman's Small hands. These are my mittens for this winter.

I finished them last night. Good thing, too, because the first snow of the season is falling as I type. When I showed them to Tom, telling him they were ravens not crows, he asked, "What's the difference between a crow and a raven?"

This is, apparently, a common enough question to warrant its own article at wisegeek.com. They are in the same family of birds but there are differences in size and color, with the raven both bigger and with more blue-black iridescence than the crow.

Christmas Knitting - A Hat So NIce I Might Make It Twice

2010-11-10T10:17:00.000-06:00

Made for a girl who will be 6 months old at Christmastime

I am lucky to have two little girls to knit for. I wanted to make something practical, pretty, and that could be worn long after Christmas is over and done. This little retro cloche Poppy by Justine Turner, available as a free Ravelry download, fit the bill.

The rose and leaves are a separate pattern. This is what the hat looks like undecorated. Some put a decorative button, some a bow, others a flower. The rose and leaves I used are also a free pattern.

You can find the pattern on the Coats & Clark website, here.

A November Evening

2010-11-08T20:34:00.000-06:00

Dinner is done. The dishes are in the dishwasher.

Jack the beagle is on his beanbag.

Nala the ninja kitty con fuego is on my fleece blanket.

Tom is on the couch. He's sporting a new pair of Cedar Creeks in Regia Bamboo Color (45% bamboo, 40% wool, 15% polyamide).

Time to settle in for an hour of murder with Hercule Poirot on PBS.

Five Colors of Sport-Weight + Size 0 Needles = Colorwork

2010-11-01T09:53:00.001-05:00

Blocking with top pinned because it's a little wonky

So, I found a bag of forgotten yarn in the basement the other day. Among others, there are two handfuls of colors of Dalegarn Falk (sport weight, 100% wool, machine washable), perfect for a colorful pair of Latvian-style fingerless mitts. I used five colors: medium orange, olive green, yellow-green, light yellow, and burgundy.

Should go well with my brown coat.

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T13:12:00.001-05:00

A little black acrylic yarn and you've got yourself a decorated house/giant cat toy.

Found Wool!

2010-10-28T09:28:00.001-05:00

A large plastic garbage bag full of wool!

In my basement!

Under my parents' old formica-topped dining room table! Next to a shoebox full of fieldwork notes!

Serendipitous stash enhancement!

That yarn has been there, oh, six years. I know exactly when I bought it and for what, which happens to be a chullo hat for a baby.

There are over ten colors, yay!

And the yarn is mostly nice wool like Dalegarn Falk (sport weight, 100% wool, machine washable), perfect for stranded colorwork! Yes, I did end up making that chullo and even in time to give it to the baby I intended it for. At the time, it took me probably three weeks of concentrated effort.

But that was then and this is now. There's a lot of knitting between the two. I am happy to report that, although I found the garbage bag of yarn only three days ago, I have a Finished Object.

Soaking for blocking this morning

The pattern is Annemor #2 from Selbuvotter: Biography of a Knitting Tradition by Terri Shea. If you don't already own this book and you love Scandinavian knitting, consider adding this book to your collection. There are 30 patterns, all taken from antique mittens and interesting background info, too.

The Scandinavian mitten connoisseurs will notice immediately that the yarn is worsted-weight instead of the traditional fingering. I took a pattern for a child's mitten and sized it for an adult woman's medium-sized hand simply by using the heavier wool and larger needles (#3 dpns).

One - No, Two - Quick Knits

2010-10-15T15:31:00.000-05:00

You have seen 60 Quick Knits? It's got patterns of varying difficulty for 20 hats, 20 scarves, and 20 mittens, all for worsted-weight yarn. A book like this can come in handy at this time of the year *cough* holidayknitting *cough*

Sixty patterns this book may have but I bought the book for only one. The Birdcage Mittens by Elli Stubenrauch called to me.

My version is made from Peaceable Acres worsted and Aussi Yarn, both from the stash. I have a hate-hate relationship with that Aussi Yarn. That Aussi stuff is splitty and it's knotted to make the yardage and it's a little rough. If someone offered me my weight in Aussi Yarn, I'd turn them down.

Okay, first I'd try bargaining before I turned down the gift. I'd try for half my weight in Noro Kureyon. One-quarter in Koigu KPPM?

So, mittens made, I had just the person to give them to. My younger daughter is making a flying visit home from college for Fall break. And so I thumbed through the 60 Quick Knits and I made her a hat.

Garter-Ridged Hat and Birdcage Mittens

Why Knit Socks?

2010-10-12T18:00:00.002-05:00

Trail Mix Socks in Panda Cotton Solid (59% bamboo, 25% cotton, 16% nylon)

When I started this blog, I was a confirmed non-sock knitter. What a lot of work for something no one ever looks at because who looks at socks, I figured. What a waste of money.

A little time went by. I got better at knitting. I began to wonder why all the fuss about sock knitting. What the hey, I knit a pair. Then another. It was fun. Socks are a small, portable project, as mindless or mindful as you want them to be and quick to finish.

Much more importantly, Tom was diagnosed with diabetes. It had become essential he have socks that would not bind. In other words, Tom needs socks that fit him perfectly. Handknit socks fit. Until you've tried a pair, you think machine-knit socks are fine.

Project portability and custom fit are two great reasons to knit socks. There's a third: sock yarn. Sock yarn can be really gorgeous. You don’t need a lot of it/a big investment to have enough for a pair of socks. For around $20, you can make a really special pair of socks but you don't have to spend that much. The socks in the photo above cost $12 to make.

My favorite sock yarn? It's Boo Fly Sock a mix of superwash merino and bamboo. The colors are gorgeous and the yarn wears like iron. You can throw them in the washing machine. The merino makes it warm enough for when the snow falls, which can be October - April here. The bamboo makes it comfortably warm, not sweaty. Bamboo socks tend not to smell as the fiber contains an antibacterial and bacteriostasis bioagent.

Happy Socktober, all!

A Stork's Nest Scarf

2010-10-03T12:54:00.002-05:00

I picked up a skein of llama yarn at a harvest festival the other week. The yarn is spun from the fur of a llama named Ghost Dancer. As you would expect from a name like Ghost Dancer, the color is a pale, ethereal gray. The wool is as soft to the touch as angora.

It knit up quickly into an Estonian lace scarf in the Stork's Nest pattern written up by Nancy Bush in Knitting Traditions magzine (Winter 2010). Click on the photo and suddenly the little stork nests will appear.

Magazine Knitting

2010-09-27T09:58:00.001-05:00

I razzed Vogue Knitting's photo styling in my previous post. Coincidentally, one of their designs has just come off my needles. These are an Elli Steubenrauch design from Winter 2009/10. Check those thumbs! (You can click on any photo to make bigger.) The ribbing effect at the cuffs is achieved by knitting with the main color and purling with the contrast color. The palms have a geometric mosaic design. It's a good contrast to the trees and grass on the fronts and thumbs.

.

Soft as beagle ears is the worsted-weight from Kimmet Croft! That yarn is pure joy to work with and there was enough yarn left over to knit ...

a hat! The design is Quantoid Hat and you can find it in Knitscene, Fall 2010.

In fact, there's still more yarn left, certainly more than enough for a pair of wristers, maybe even cabled ones and you know how that gobbles up the yardage. The green skein began with 250 yards and the blue with 230. It's starting to feel a little loaves-and-fishes, Bartholomew Cubbins and the 500 Hats by Dr. Seuss, if you follow. The latter, you remember, is the story where the boy finds that each time he removes his hat to the king, another hat is on his head, ad infinitum.

What's the Backstory?

2010-09-25T12:26:00.001-05:00

Vogue Knitting previewed this beautiful numbah from the upcoming
Holiday edition of the magazine. Sure, it's beautiful but I'm thinking the same thing as when I leaf through an anthropologie catalog: What's the bloomin' backstory?!
Why does the chandelier hang in mid-air, rather than from the ceiling? Why is that swath of cloth draped around the wire?

Because here's what I'm getting: the woman pulled an Anna Nicole Smith, i.e., she married an almost-deceased plutocrat. It is now after his death and our Lady in Red wants to unload the entire contents of all his properties - this one is in France - before the plutocrats' adult children contest the will. This is why the chandelier has come down from the ceiling, ready to be wrapped in the swath of pistachio-colored velvet drapery. Yep, she's even selling off the drapes and antlers. This is why the Lady in Red stands in front of a large pallet with her hand on an old trunk.

Okay, I think we can fairly call that solved, don't you?

Fresh Bread and Fresh Yarn

2010-09-16T16:46:00.001-05:00

Tom and I took a break from writing to make the 10-minute drive to Amherst, pop. 1052. My first stop is always Wisconsin Wool Exchange. It's a little store that proves size doesn't matter, it's what you do with it. Today they were chockablock with all kinds of yarny goodness: wheels of Icelandic unspun, handpainted sock yarn, handspun local alpaca, handmade glass buttons ...

The wall o' Kimmet Croft always blows my mind with its beauty. I'm becoming a Kimmet Croft collector without realizing it. Here are my two beautiful colors for today. Both are worsted weight.

Kimmet Croft Luscious Lamb (100% merino lambswool, 230 yards) in Blue Sky
and Comfort Plus (100% fine wool) in Shamrock Green

And what was Tom doing while I fondled yarn? He was down the street at the newly-reopened bakery buying some of the best bread you'll ever eat.

Burr Oak

2010-09-11T14:15:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows Laura Ingalls Wilder was born and lived for a while in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. Her Pa had an "itchy foot" that led the family away from the Big Woods to live in a number of other places: Minnesota, Kansas, South Dakota. As an old woman, Laura collaborated with her daughter Rose on those famous books detailing her life and times.

I have visited the Laura sites at Pepin, Wisconsin and DeSmet, South Dakota. Laura had a photographic memory.

There is one place about which Laura and Rose never wrote: Burr Oak, Iowa, 120 miles from the Little House in the Big Woods. The Wilders lived in Burr Oak one year, 1876-1877. At that time, the town was a stopping off point for travelers, with as many as 200 wagons coming through a day. Pa managed the Masters Hotel and his wife and children worked there. Little Grace was born in Burr Oak. The year was a painful one for the family and they eventually left in the dark of night without settling their debts. If you're intrigued, read Laura Ingalls Wilder: The Iowa Story by the respected Ingalls authority William Anderson. It's available at amazon.com, among other places.

The Masters Hotel, Burr Oak, Iowa

Tom and I stopped at Burr Oak the other day, on our way to attend to family business farther into Iowa. Because the town is very small and off the beaten track, it seems frozen in time. It takes almost no imagination to picture Laura and Mary picking apples or wading in the creek behind the hotel.

After Burr Oak, Tom and I drove on to attend to family matters. Of course, you know I knit and knit and knit my way through those few days.

Rip It Rip It Rip It

2010-09-04T09:16:00.000-05:00

Summer Sox, design by Cookie A

There are soul-sucking knitting projects. For whatever reason, the project becomes one long slog through the swamp of knitting tedium or despair.

I used to perservere through those. No longer. Knitting for me is a hobby. If it's not fun or esthetically pleasing, into the frog pond it goes so I can rip it rip it rip it to start over on something else.

Ninety percent or more of knitting is fun stuff. The socks in the photo above: fun stuff. The lace is unusual and an easily-memorized 10-row pattern. I knit the socks in front of the tv, in the car, and at a political rally. I liked that I knew the pattern by heart, that I didn't have to keep referring to the chart.

I also like Scandinavian colorwork where the chart can never leave my side. What will be a fun knit and what will be a slog is not that predictable. I like colorwork. I like cables. I like lace. What I don't like are long swaths of garter stitch, although I do like the look of long swaths of garter stitch, à la the beautiful work of Brooklyn Tweed.

I have two projects on the needles right now. One is a Scandinavian colorwork mitten, the other a lace stole. Colorwork and lace, two things I find fun, yet one of these requires me to put on figurative waders and slog through a swamp of Baudelarian ennui. And that's just walking by the thing sitting on the table. It's exactly the feeling Jean-Louis Murat sings about in Baudelaire's poem «La Cloche fêlée», set to music by Léo Ferré.

Jean Louis Murat - la cloche fêlée
Uploaded by Jean-Louis-Murat. - Discover more animation and arts videos.

When lines from Baudelaire crowd your head, it's time to send that knitting project to the frog pond. Au revoir, lace stole. I will rip it rip it rip it and start over.

I Am A Fan of Marta Stina Abramsdotter

2010-09-02T16:17:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks. We took our daughters to college, a drive that took us from Wisconsin to North Carolina and Ohio and back.

It's good to be back home. Tom and I were at the Portage County Democratic Party Picnic last Sunday. It's held in the old brick warehouse by the river and boy howdy, it was hot. On each picnic table, a tin can holding a bouquet of these...

That fan came in right handy. Pretty soon, though, as the politicians' speeches progressed, the knitting in my purse called to me. At that point, I had a decision: fanning or knitting? My preference was both! Would Tom fan me as I knit away?

Yeah ... nope. Drat.

I put down the fan for a bit and split my time between the fanning and the knitting. If you're guessing that I knit away on a sock, you're guessing right. It's a Cookie A design called Summer Sox and it's free. The yarn is Classic Elite Yarn's Summer Sox (40% cotton, 40% superwash merino, 20% nylon). I'm almost finished with the second sock so good, clear photos probably tomorrow.

That's my mindless tv/political picnic knitting. For more of a challenge, I began a pair of Latvian mittens in Finnish yarn. Just look at that fancy braided cuff and that tiny gauge.

You know what? I don't like them - too fussy. Also, my color choices are off, off, off. The colors need to be a lot livelier.

Oh, yes, I frogged the thing. It felt good! With the same yarn, I knit something still from within the Baltic region, this time from Sweden.

This is Ulrika Bos Kerttu's Swedish Mittens from Knitting Traditions, which had a limited run. You can purchase the pattern as a kit here. The design is based on the knitting of master knitter Marta Stina Abrahamsdotter (1825-1903), a woman so ahead of her time that we're only beginning to catch up to her aesthetic sense and technique.

I love this design. It's clean and it's simple and yet it's still Nordic folk art. Look at how pretty the palm is and please click on this photo to enlarge it so you can see that almost trompe l'oeil "lace" border.

My mitten. Fall is in the air.

Ramona Lace Helmet

2010-08-09T13:17:00.000-05:00

To me, this hat looks like something Amélie would wear. It's hits the same notes that Audrey Tatou's character does: gamine and playful and retro and stylishly offbeat. If only it were in a saturated red or blue or green ...

I made it in a sport-weight alpaca handspun from Alpaca Bay Farm on Prince Edward Island. The yarn is as soft as a kitten's tummy - how's that for an Amélie-ish image.

Fierce Dala Mittens for My Svenska Flicka

2010-08-07T18:08:00.000-05:00

Soon enough mitten weather will arrive in the Midwest. The moment I saw Wenche Roald's Dala-Selbu Hybrid mittens , I cast on. My daughter heading back to college in Ohio is going to need these.

The horse design is a Dala horse, a symbol of the Swedish province of Dalarna. The photo is poor but can you read what's knitted into the underside of the thumb?

It so happens that my husband is a proud Swedish-American who speaks Swedish well. His relatives did not come from Dalarna, though, but from Jemtland, Värmland, and Ostergötland.

When I gave the mittens to my daughter, she put them on, stretched out her arms in front of her to study the mittens, front and back. Verdict: "They're fierce!"

Mitten Smitten

2010-07-30T13:51:00.001-05:00

I'm on a bit of a mitten jag. As summer temperatures soar, I'm in the middle of Wenche Roald's Dala Selbu Hybrid.

It started with the pattern, a free download at Ravelry. Tom is a proud Swedish-American. We have a collection of wooden Dala horses that come out every Christmas to decorate the house.

The yarn for these mittens is Knitpicks Palette in two tones of purple. Knitpicks is the place for completely affordable yarn. Their Palette line has umpteen colors and is heaven-sent for knitting colorwork mittens. Palette yarn is so affordable that the total cost of making the mittens in the photo above is under $5.00, assuming you already have the needles. If not, add another $6.50.

In contrast, the pair of Latvian mittens I'm planning as I join the Lizbeth Upitis KAL at Ravelry will cost much more. I'll break it down:

3 colors of the recommended yarn, Vuorelman Satakieli from Finland, sold at School House Press ... $15/ea.

1 copy of Latvian Mittens ... $25

a free opportunity to learn from the leading U.S. authority on knitting this style of mitten .... priceless

I didn't have to spend $45 on Finnish yarn. I could make the Latvian mittens in Palette for $1.99 - $2.19 a ball. Maybe next time.

For my first pair of this special style of colorwork knitting, I wanted very much to go the caviar-dreams-and-champagne-wishes route. And so, a great time was had in agonizing over which three colors to choose. After much backing-and-forthing and consulting of family members, the final decision came down to turquoise, burnt orange, and grey.

Latvia via Santa Fe!

Insou

2010-07-23T16:56:00.000-05:00

One skein of worsted, a pair of size 7 knitting needles, a pair of size 9 knitting needles, a cable needle, a few beads and you've got Insou. The pattern is free from Berroco but the whole shebang turns out like something for which you'd pay $40 for at anthropologie.

This was a stash-down project. The wool is Black Water Abbey 2-ply worsted wool in Pink Heather. It's been in my cedar chest waaaaaaiting for four or five years. The beads are from the stash of the model, my older daughter. They are sewn into the center of the flowers. You can see them if you click the photo to make it bigger.

The Science of Socks - July

2010-07-21T11:09:00.001-05:00

The last installment of Knit Purl's 2009-10 sock club arrived this morning. As always, the presentation was beautiful. Also as always, included was a little surprise.

The surprises have ranged from a Lantern Moon sock project bag in shocking pink shantung to a sampling of caramels and chocolates to stitch markers to tea.

This month, there are two surprises. Here's one...

Shibui Staccato Sock (65% superwash merino, 30% silk, 5% nylon, Beachball colorway)

yep, yarn! 192 yards to be exact. It's for the second surprise, a pattern for a headband knit in short-row triangles. I don't have anyone to give a headband to, so I'll use this beautiful yarn for something else.

Koigu KPPPM (100% merino, Hot Lips colorway) The deepest plums are showing up black - sorry about that

The colorway is called Hot Lips. For those of us who don't live in Portland, Oregon, it's not a reference to the M*A*S*H character but to http://www.hotlipssoda.com/, sellers of real-fruit sodas. I guess Koigu was thinking of raspberry soda, blackberry soda, boysenberry soda, maybe even strawberry soda. Those sodas sound really good, especially on a steamy July day!

The pattern for this luscious yarn left me cold at first. I'm seesawing between contempt and technical interest on this one. What do you think: interesting challenge or juggler/clown sock that won't stay up?

Go-To Knitting Books

2010-07-20T10:39:00.000-05:00

The workhorses of my knitting library are Knitting on the Road: Sock Patterns for the Traveling Knitter and Knitted Lace of Estonia: Techniques, Patterns and Traditions, both by Nancy Bush. From each book, I've knit about 1/3 of the patterns, some of them multiple times.

It's not that I have a plan to knit these books from start to finish, although I might actually accomplish that with the sock book one day.

In fact, I've got another pattern to check off the sock book to-do list. It's called Denmark because the design comes from Viking art the author saw in the National Museum in Copenhagen. Click on the photo to see detail.

They are summer mansocks knit in Panda Cotton (59% bamboo, 25% cotton, 16% elastic nylon).

And while I was taking this photo, it occurred to me that beagle action has been too scarce on this blog. Heeeeeere's Jack!

Blackberries

2010-07-18T16:07:00.006-05:00

I took this photo just a few minutes ago. Our garden is part beebalm and phlox, coneflowers and gayfeathers. The other part is wild woods. The woods is where you'll find blackberries. We leave them for the birds because, even as blackberries go, they're seedy. If you bite into one, its sourness makes you wink.

The blackberries are pretty, though. Fleece Artist has done a nice job of capturing the purples and reds in its Blackberry colorway Sea Silk.

A nice interpretation except, as you already know, variegated colorways tend to swallow lace patterns. Want to see my first try with this yarn? It's Cheryl Oberle's Kimono Shawl, a lovely pattern.

Yep, the yarn and the pattern are fighting each other. Frogged it.

There was a second attempt, which I actually saw through to the end. It's Multnomah and requires only one skein.

I never, ever wore this. Frogged it.

Third time's a charm. Perfection Wrap from More Big Girl Knits was written expressly for variegated Sea Silk. It's a six-row, slog-of-a-knit lace pattern with some P2tog through the back loop. I do hold it away from me and spread apart the lace, admiring how it will look when blocked and Tom has remarked on the loveliness several times so on I knit. This is what one skein of Sea Silk looks like in this pattern. (You can click on any photo to make bigger.)

Watershed

2010-06-29T13:20:00.007-05:00

The moment Amy Swenson's Watershed cardi came across my radar, I dropped everything. It was one of those love-at-first-sight projects - a little, lacey open-front cardigan with cap sleeves that would require less than 400 yards.

Out came the Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed (85% wool, 10% silk, 5% cashmere) in the Beanshoot colorway from my stash. It's not the perfect yarn for the project but it's what I had on hand. When you gotta cast on, you gotta cast on. I mean, look how cute that longer front and shorter back is!

The tweedy yarn does obscure the lacework. Let me rephrase that: the tweedy yarn mutes the lacework. This close-up of the back has a center panel and along the edge, an inner and outer border. (You can click on any photo to make bigger.)

Fast, fun knit. Directions as clear as crystal. Love this project x 1,000.

Grape Fizz

2010-06-15T10:29:00.005-05:00

I went stash-diving and came up with two skeins of Artyarns Regal Silk (110% silk, 163 yards) in royal purple. It was an irresistible bargain at a going-out-of-business sale.

Yeah, what do you do with it, though?

How about ...

The pattern is Cherry Fizz from the ezine Twist Collective. Different-sized "bubbles" float from one end of the scarf to the other, tethered to each other by filigree. Here you can see the size passing from large to medium.

Nehi grape was Corporal Radar O'Reilly's favorite on "M*A*S*H" and She-Hulk apparently loves it, too. How long as it been since you've had a grape Nehi? Aparently if you're in California, you'll either have to wait awhile longer or go out of state. In googling why that is, I've come up with incomplete answers. Rather than pass along false info or rumors, I'll just leave it that the online soda sellers are not shipping this drink to California.

Happy Graduation, Cleo!

2010-05-30T11:01:00.010-05:00

You might recognize my daughter from her frequent modeling stints on this blog. Today she graduated from high school. Cleo had a stellar senior year, qualifying with her partner for not one but two national debate championships and serving as president of her high school's student body.

Cleo is headed to college in North Carolina in just 2 1/2 short months. You know what that means, fellow knitters: projects for Cleo that are light on wool and heavy on silk, cotton, and bamboo.

Let the new chapter begin!

Chinoise Wrap

2010-05-16T10:43:00.004-05:00

Years ago, Vanity Fair magazine quoted some tastemaker or other as saying, "I thirst for orange!". Well, orange seems to be having a Moment once again. It's a time-suck vortex but have a look at the Trady-Twist fashion and color forecast.

So, when I saw Kimmet Croft Fibers Softie Lite in the Rust colorway at my LYS, I bought four skeins. It's a fingering-weight mix of merino and angora. I had in mind Susan Pandorf's Chinoise Wrap. In fact, I've been obsessing on this pattern since it was released. I must really like Chinese lanterns. For years, Sarah James' Chinese Lantern sweater has been among my very favorites.

The Chinoise Wrap lace is about an 8 out of 10 on the difficulty scale. Every row is lace, with no plain knit rows. Don't you love the slight halo of the angora?

An Exercise in Increases and Decreases

2010-05-08T08:22:00.004-05:00

After finishing an afghan of endless seedstitch, wouldn't you know the very next thing I make begins with four rows of seed stitch. Oh, but *after that*, is there fun aplenty!

You may think you're knitting Smariek's Embossed Turtle Cloth but, really, you are practicising all kinds of increases and decreases. Just on the increasing side, there are:
1. M1 - knit into the back of the stitch in the row below the first stitch on the left needle, then knit into the front of the first stitch on the left needle.

2. M1Fs - lift the running thread between the stitch just worked and the next stitch and knit into the back of this stitch.
M1P - purl the stitch in the row below the first stitch on the left needle, then purl into the first stitch on the left needle.

and my favorite because I felt so slick after pulling it off the first time:
3.M2 - K1b, k1 into front of the same stitch, then insert your left needle behind the vertical strand that runs downwards from between the 2 stitches just made and k1b into this strand to make the 3rd stitch.

You increase and decrease for 45 rows of pattern and you've got a turtle. If you make it in Sugar 'n' Cream (100% cotton), you've got a turtle dish cloth.

College Afghan - Off the Needles

2010-05-06T20:48:00.007-05:00

Oh, I agonized over this afghan for my younger daughter. She wanted something simple, something in one color only, something most certainly not in squares like a granny afghan.

There went my plans for making her a Babette Blanket in 17 different colorways of Koigu. Instead, I ordered a sensible amount of Cascade 220 Superwash in one of her favorite colors, cast on quite a few stitches using two strands of yarn and #10 circs and started hacking away at rows and rows of seed stitch.

Oceans of seed stitch. Acres of it. Giant industrial vats of seed stitch.

Months later, it was time to bind off and add a crochet border: this one. I worked rows 1 - 3 only using a G hook. The ribbon was an afterthought. My daughter can change the color if she likes or take it out altogether. I hope it stays in for awhile. I hope it and the afghan keep my kid warm and safe and happy and fed and well and all the things a mom can't do in person when her kid is many states away in college.

Starry-Eyed Knitting

2010-05-03T07:24:00.008-05:00

Have you seen the interview with Cookie A., she of the fabulous and iconic sock designs, in the new KnitCircus, free and online?

The existence of knitting stars often surprises non-knitters. You know you've passed into Knitting Dweebdom when you'd (much) rather meet any knitting star than any movie star. I haven't yet had the chance to go to a knitting convention, as in Stitches Midwest or the upcoming mitten summit, both in Chicago. Online, it's been a thrill to bump into interactions with Norah Gaughan, Anne Hanson, Sivia Harding, and Jane Brocket. Has a chance conversation with a knitting star has happened to you? Leave a comment - I'd love to hear about it.

Back on earth and the Little 1950's Ranch House in the Big Woods, I'm knitting and knitting and knitting away on the big pink college afghan for my younger daughter.
It's getting to be time to decide on a border. I'm thinking crocheted border, something a little spiky and pointed, rather than rounded.

A pair of mansocks came off the needles on Saturday. These are something like the third pair of Nancy Bush's Conwy socks. It's a great unisex twining cable pattern knit without a cable needle, this time in Patons Stretch Socks (41% cotton, 39% wool, 13% nylon, 7% elastic). Tom likes the stretch in the sock and said, "These are the best-fitting ones yet." With that particular mix of fibers, the socks should wear well.

Fickle Fingers

2010-04-21T09:51:00.003-05:00

K1, p1, k1, p1 for rows and rows and rows and rows and ... Yes, a bored knitter has a roving eye for other projects. Here are two favorites:

CocoKnits' Gretel, a seamless Issey Miyakesque, Eileen Fisheresque Habulicious tank. I even already have the cotton gima in my stash, color: cornflower.

A Few Stitches Short's Chinoise Wrap, a lacey confection inspired by wicker and the chinese lantern plant. For this one, I would have to buy yarn.

But first, back to

Ariel

2010-04-19T09:01:00.004-05:00

It used to be that socks didn't get no respect, to borrow the line of the immortal Rodney Dangerfield. Now? They're recognized as wearable art. Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum has
Socks: Between You and Your Shoes. If you can't make it to Toronto, there's the online Sock Museum, assembled for last year's Sock Summit.

Click on any photo to make bigger. These socks are Ariel from Sock Club: Join the Knitting Adventure. The lace motif is a Japanese interpretation of mermaid tails. The variegated yarn - Pagewood Farm's Yukon (merino superwash/bamboo/nylon) in Turquoise - somewhat obscures the lace. I happen to be one of those who likes that effect but I may knit these again in a solid color. As lace goes, I'd give these a moderately-adventurous rating. It was possible to knit these while watching episodes of the "House of Elliot". Last night, Tom and I watched three episodes back-to-back. We're still on Season 1. Does Sebastian ravish his younger half-sister?

From The Campus Bookstore, Madison

2010-04-10T14:25:00.002-05:00

Tom and I were at the University of Wisconsin - Madison yesterday for a conference. During a break, we walked over to the University Bookstore. Look what was on the main floor ...

On the Metal or Bamboo Needles

2010-04-07T08:30:00.010-05:00

As the crow flies, it is less than two miles from my house to the warehouse store of a crafts mailorder house. The business is known mostly for afghan kits in acrylic yarn. The store is still a nice resource for knitting needles and counters, especially when they run a coupon for $10 off any $50 purchase.

Such was the case last week. I stopped by to stock up on counters and double pointed needles. Dpns are used to knit small items like socks and hats in the round. My favorites are the metal Addis for their strength and slippery-ness. If you're interested in more about bamboo needles,
here's a nice explanation. Bamboo needles do need to be replaced every now and then, due to their tendency to bend or warp or even snap in two. If you torque hard enough on metal needles, they'll bend, too, but they won't break. In any case, metal or bamboo is just a matter of preference. You'll get nice knitting from both. How about a show-and-tell of what's on my metal or bamboo needles?

Exhbit A has come to be known as Big Pink. It's an afghan in Cascade 220 Superwash for a daughter who is going off to college next year. A rectangle of k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, p1 - that's all it is until that blessèd day when I get to whatever edging I end up putting on this behemouth.

In counterpoint to the simplicity of Big Pink is an elaborate pair of lace socks. I have one done and am about to cast on for the second. The pattern is Ariel, named after Disney's Little Mermaid. I've traced the mermaid trail in the lace motif. This is an incredibly fun knit designed by Debbie O'Neill from the new book Sock Club: Join the Knitting Adventure. I had some Pagewood Farm Yukon (70% merino superwash, 20% bamboo, 10% nylon) in the watery Turquoise colorway. The variegation obscures the lace a bit, no suprise there. You can click on any photo in this post to make it bigger.

And how about some beagle love to round things out? Here's what was happening beagle-wise while my sock model posed.

Socks That (Practically) Knit Themselves

2010-03-24T18:12:00.005-05:00

All over the knitting blogosphere are photos of new leaves and budding daffodils. I've got a pair of socks in spring green, instead. The yarn is Abstract Fiber Super Sock in Primavera, an exclusive colorway for the Knit Purl Sock Club. It's a mix of green, lavender, and blue. Click on any photo to see detail.

When I gave my daughter the socks to put on for these photos, she said, "Guacamole socks!" No, Intertwined Socks. If you click on the photo to see the detail, you'll see the name is a good one.

Actually, the way I knit them, these are Intertwined Socks Lite. The designer, Sara Morris, wrote the pattern to be worked from the toe up on two circular needles. There are two distinct socks, sock A and sock B. There's a beautiful, patterned heel. I converted the pattern to top-down and made both socks the same, since I liked the chart for Sock A so well. I knit on double-pointed needles, not circs. I even ignored the beautiful, patterned heel to make just a plain vanilla one.

The essential is still there: the lace. It's 10 rows over 10 stitches and I could not put it down! The combination of the cheerful spring yarn and the intertwining lace had my needles flying.

Two Projects: Pink and Purple, Yin and Yang

2010-03-17T12:31:00.006-05:00

My two main projects on the needles couldn't be less alike.

In mindless tv knitting, there's an afghan in moss stitch.

The yarn is superwash merino. I'm knitting with two strands on the biggest needles I own to speed this up. Eventually, there'll be some kind of lacy border.

Don't get me wrong, It is a long slog of moss stitch but the results are pretty and the recipient asked for something very simple and clean. She will enjoy this afghan for years.

At about the time I cast on for the afghan, a lot of Estonian knitted lace was on my radar. This stunning book arrived in the mail

I bought mine from Knit Purl in Portland, Oregon but amazon.com has the book, as do many other online knitting or book shops. This $60 book that's well worth the money. It's a coffee table book of stunningly beautiful photographs but it is also a pattern book that situates the lace knitting in a cultural and historical context.

To chose a favorite pattern is impossible but one of my favorites is Lily of the Valley and Stones. Nancy Bush also must love this pattern; her beautiful Facing Lilies Stole in the current Interweave Knits is none other than the Lily of the Valley and Stones pattern and a border.

So the other project on the needles is a stole of Lily of the Valley and Stones. The yarn was a birthday gift from my sister a couple of years ago. It's Jade Sapphire 2-ply cashmere in the Lupine colorway. I've been saving it for something glorious.

Fiddly lace knitting in fine yarn, baby. That's where the heart lies.

Acorn Stash

2010-03-04T08:29:00.003-06:00

Acorn Stash socks are nothing like my other current project. They are fiddly lace knit on #1s in thin yarn.

How I love everything about them!

The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in the Strange Harvest colorway. It's a pretty good approximation of the floor of a stand of oaks. Click on the photo to make bigger and the acorns in the design will pop right out at you.

Thinking and Rethinking Pink

2010-03-01T16:30:00.004-06:00

Almost a year ago, skeins and skeins of pink Cascade 220 Superwash arrived at my house. They're for a high-school graduation present for my younger daughter. I'm going to make her an afghan for her college dorm room.

But which afghan? If I were making one for myself, I'd go for theBabette Blanket. After that, I'd choose the Great American Aran Afghan.

My daughter hated Babette, was lukewarm towards the Great American Aran. She wants something all one color with lots of cables but not too seafaring, and no sampler squares.

I'm good with that. Now I looked for something worked either in strips or squares and the needle size smaller than 9. I'm more a lace knitter than an afghan knitter. A big shawl on little needles I can wrap my mind around. A big afghan on big needles I fought against.

I settled on an afghan made from a repeat of the same square which somehow looks really kicky in pink. The Debbie Bliss Comfort Square has plenty of cables (also plenty of bobbles) and definitely is not at all seafaring. Sadly, the effect of two blocks sewn together is not what I'd hoped. It's partly that the yarn needs to have more body for this job and partly that the square is a little wonky at the bottom so the join cannot be really smooth. You can see it in this picture. It's the little wavy bump. No, it doesn't block out very well.

I've decided to stop overthinking this afghan. I've decided to stop fighting the big needles. With doubled yarn, I cast on 150 stitches on #10s. The body will be moss stitch. There will be some kind of decorative border, either knit or crocheted. It will be something like Elizabeth Zimmerman's Stonington Shawl.

This will be good tv knitting. To go with, I have netflixed the murder mystery series "Castle".

Vintage Baby Dress

2010-02-27T14:34:00.004-06:00

A special baby girl will be born in the spring. Her mother seems like someone who would appreciate a vintage-styled knit. That's why this baby dress by Kristen Rengren winked at me when I flipped through the pages of Vogue Knitting, Holiday 2009.

The details: Square neck, set-in sleeves, bands of garter stitch alternating with bands of Madeira lace. The yarn is superwash merino Plymouth Happy Feet DK. The colorway is #54, a mix of sky and French blues. I knit it on #6 straights.

A French-blue velvet ribbon will be threaded through the eyelet beading at the empire waist, as soon as said French-blue velvet ribbon arrives from ... okay, before I link you, be warned that this fabulous site is also a huge time-sucking vortex. You have been warned ... M & J Trimming.

And one more link to finish today's post: Beagle Trails of Park Ridge is a photo blog of Jack the beagle I began this past week. Enjoy!

Sally

2010-02-25T10:01:00.007-06:00

Rest in peace, Sally the good cat. You were the best cat we ever belonged to.

Change is the way of the world. I am trying to stay in a place of gratitude for the gift of Sally the good cat. "Knit on through all crises," Elizabeth Zimmerman famously said.

That is what I plan to do.

Multnomah

2010-02-11T16:39:00.006-06:00

Take one skein of highly-variegated laceweight. (This is Fleece Artist Sea Silk in the Blackberry colorway)

Add a pair of #3 lace needles, nice and sharp and the pattern for Multnomah, which happens to be free. Knit as many repeats as you like the looks of or as many as your skein allows, in this case 10.

My Plans Were to Give Socks A Rest

2010-02-10T08:42:00.005-06:00

Tom's Birthday Socks - done! The yarn is Boo Fly Sock (60% superwash merino, 30% bamboo, 10% nylon). It was a pleasure to knit with and the wool-bamboo mix should be a pleasure to wear in these late-winter months. (You can click any photo to make bigger.)

The sock pattern is Nancy Bush's Conwy. In order to finish the socks in time, I knit the feet plain. I don't love the flashing but I don't hate it either. I do love what the pattern on the leg does to the Woodland colorway.

My plans were to give socks a rest, once Tom's birthday socks were finished. Then this brand new book by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott showed up on the radar ...

There's some instruction in the book - how to upsize and downsize, for example - but, fundamentally, you'd better already have knit a sock or two. The patterns range from funky to fun to classic. It's a great selection of 23 patterns. My standout favorite is Anne Hanson's Acorn Stash Socks. It just looks fun to knit.

The pattern was written for indy dyer Fearless Fibers' sock yarn in the muted golds and greens of her colorway Greed. It's a beautiful yarn and I was juuuuust about to order it when I happened upon

at Lakeside Fibers in Madison, Wisconsin. The colorway is Strange Harvest. Pretty acorny, don't you think?

Bam Bam A-Ree Bam A-Ram Bamboo

2010-01-28T14:07:00.008-06:00

A request for a pair of birthday socks sent me to my cedar chest. That's where my yarn waits to be used.

This photo represents about a third of the chest, the part where I keep the sock yarns.

I keep them in three different bags: the brown and cream yarn is in the eh-it-was-a-bargain-so-I-bought-it bag, the flowered bag is the excuse-me-but-this-is-hand-dyed bag, the blue yarns you see are a heavier fingering weight for maybe socks or maybe baby garments. The arrow? It's pointing to the yarn I needed for the birthday socks, the bamboo sock yarns.

We are big fans of bamboo yarn in this house, especially for socks.

"The fiber contains an antibacterial and bacteriostasis bioagent that stays in the fiber even after the garment has been washed fifty times... The fiber's cell structure is made of microscopic holes that provide for extremely rapid moisture absorption and evaporation, giving it an excellent ability to breathe." -Clara Parkes in The Knitter's Book of Yarn

No wonder I have a nice stash of the stuff. Want a closer look? You can click any photo to make bigger.

The orange variegated is a 400-yard skein of Sugar Bunny Boulevard's Emeline (55% bamboo, 24$ cotton, 21% elastic)in the Spice colorway. It's sprongy to the touch, thanks to all that elastic. One of the blues in there is Regia Bamboo Color (45% bamboo, 40% wool, 15% polyamid and the other is Pandal Wool (51% bamboo, 39% wool, 10% nylon). The white is Panda Cotton (59% bamboo, 25% cotton, 16% elastic nylon.

It being a February birthday these socks are for, I decided on a hefty mix of wool and bamboo, Boo Fly Sock (60% superwash merino, 30% bamboo, 10% nylon) in the Woodland colorway. More about that tomorrow.

Heart to Heart Scarf

2010-01-23T16:44:00.003-06:00

I started this project with the laceweight called for in the pattern. Sadly, my lace-knitting mojo had temporarily deserted me. Everytime I frogged or tinked back, the laceweight was looking shabbier and shabbier.

This had nothing to do with the quality of Sivia Harding’s instructions. They are flawless and easy to understand. It was totally me.

I cast on with some DK-weight Malabrigo Silky Merino I had in my stash but kept the #3 needles. The idea was to practice until I understood the pattern. The heavier yarn could be frogged and tinked until Kingdom Come. Later, I would begin over with the laceweight.

After one repeat of the pattern in the DK-weight, my lace-knitting mojo had returned after one repeat of the pattern in the DK. Instead of setting it aside and casting on with the laceweight, I was liking the way it looked in the heavier yarn.

So, I kept on knitting, no beads. And here you have the result. I love it.
Since January is for Selfish Knitting, the scarf is for me. Thanks to my daughter Cleo for modeling it for the camera.

I've Got Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

2010-01-19T15:23:00.006-06:00

Talkin' about my yarn (my yarn, my yarn). Another wonderful package from the Knit Purl Sock Club came in the mail today. They even sent chocolates and caramels, too! (Click on any of these photos to make them bigger.)

Unintended Knitting

2010-01-18T13:28:00.005-06:00

When I started on Sivia Harding's long crescent-shaped shawlette Heart to Heart with the correct lace-weight yarn and the little silver-lined crystal round 8/0 beads, my lace-knitting mojo abandoned me. Pretty soon, that beautiful lace-weight yarn began to look tatty from all the knitting and unknitting.

So I cast on with a stronger DK-weight yarn, Malabrigo Silky Merino (51% silk, 49% merino). I kept the #3 needles only because they've got really sharp points on 'em, which is terrific for knitting lace.

The thing was, I liked the way the Heart to Heart was looking in that thicker yarn on needles smaller than you'd normally use. See how texturelicious the garter stitch part is?

And how about that edging, eh? You can really see why it's called "Heart to Heart".

2010-01-11T08:20:00.005-06:00

My cousin Mitzi found this blog through facebook. Hi Mitzi and do
you know that our granny taught me how to knit? I was five or six years old. We knit a pair of stockings and garters for the front legs of my cat.

Yes, we actually put them on her. They stayed on for a little while, too, because of the garters.

It was a nothing project, a bagatelle. It still makes me laugh 45+ years later.

Angularity Vest

2010-01-07T16:22:00.005-06:00

Do you know Knitcircus Magazine? It's out of Madison, Wisconsin and a bit difficult to find in shops. No longer a problem! They're going to publish online as of February this year.

Let me show you something I knit from a Knitcircus pattern. This is the Angularity Vest by Elizabeth Morrison. I made it for Tom's Christmas present in Jo Sharp Classic DK Wool in a deep teal called China.

It's a classic v-neck updated with a zigzag twisted stitch, very simple, very vertical, very clean.

This was fun to knit and had very clear and concise directions. It's just a great pattern that deserves to be popular. With digital publication next month, my guess is it's going to be.

Practice Lace

2010-01-05T09:37:00.007-06:00

January is for Selfish Knitting. I'm knitting for myself this month.

To that end, I have Sivia Harding's Heart to Heart scarf pattern, the right lace needles, and the right yarn
The pattern takes 400 yards. That translates to one skein Mama Llama Cashmere in Blush Pink.

So soft. So pretty.

I sneered at the Real Old-Fashioned Winter outside the window and sat down in my chair. I:
- read the pattern notes
-cast on the ten stitches that begin the pattern
- went through the set-up rows.

Uh oh. It wasn't right. A better description than "went through" would be "muddled through". Now, please know that there is nothing wrong with Sivia Harding's directions. They are just fine.

It was me. I:
- frogged the set-up rows
- and tried again.

It was a little better until I continued on to the actual body of the scarf.

Ugh, no good. I frogged again.

Temporary missing lace-knitting mojo + lace-weight cashmere = bad idea. Instead and for the third time, I:
- cast on the ten stitches that begin the pattern.

The difference was that, this time, I put aside the lace-weight cashmere for a more robust yarn from my stash, Mmmmmmmalabrigo Silky Merino. It's 51% silk and 49% merino in a DK weight. The color is Green Gray; I'd say more muted turquoise than either green or gray.

I:
- wrestled that lace into submission!

The scarf is divided into three sections: a tubular edge (orange arrow), a garter-stitch center (purple arrow), and a border of heart lace (pink arrow). The pattern has 16 rows and is really simple, once it's clear which direction you're knitting in. The garter-stitch center will gradually grow from its original 3 stitches to 31 stitches, then narrow again.

It's one of Sivia Harding's most beautiful designs. And yes, because it's designed by Sivia Harding, it's intended to be beaded. For the eventual blush-pink cashmere version, I have silver-lined crystal beads. The orange dots show how they'll be placed. (You can click any photo to make bigger.)

Working lace in dk-weight put in mind something Jared Flood wrote in Made in Brooklyn:

Oh how I love working up lace in dk and worsted weight yanrs - I love seeing the construction of the work, direction of stitches and the 'pop' of a lace pattern in these heavier-than-traditional yarns.

I'm a little obsessed by the prettiness of the Heart to Heart Scarf in the Malabrigo. Back to knitting so I have some more to show you tomorrow!

The Science of Socks: Vinifera

2010-01-02T10:03:00.004-06:00

The Christmas knitting done, did I cast on for something lacey and luscious like an Estonian shawl?

Okay, I did.

Did I cast on for something practical yet challenging like a Bohus cap in handspun and carefully-dyed angora and wool?

Yeppers on that one, too. I'll show them to you in the next couple of days.

And yet the knitting decks were not perfectly clear when I cast on for the Estonian thing and the Bohus thing. One small, unfinished project still needed my attention: the November installment of the Knit Purl Sock Club.

The yarn is Abstract Fiber Super Sock in the exclusive colorway Pinot Noir. If you like sock yarn, you'll enjoy the Abstract Fiber site. It's nice stuff, 100% superwash merino, 380 yards per skein.

The colorway for the sock club, a combination of black, merlot, and olive doesn't really say "Socks to wear to a wine tasting!" to me. It says more "Socks to wear to watch the movie 'Nightmare before Christmas'!".

There's no doubt that wine inspired the pattern, though. Vinifera by Miriam Felton runs twisted ribs the length of the sock. The interesting vineyard detail is at the top of the leg: grapes. Each grape is a m5 in one stitch followed by a few rows of k, then finished up with a sl2 k3tog p2sso. I've drawn an arrow to one of the grapes. They are staggered over the first five inches.

Can you spot a few more grapes? It's not easy in the photo or in person. I count four and a half grapes in this photo. I think.

I absolutely love this sock club. It's one big stretching exercise, something that never hurts when you're talking about knitting.

Lace Beret

2009-12-27T13:49:00.005-06:00

Right now, there are many, many, ma-ny patterns for lace berets. The lace differs from hat to hat and some are more oversized than others. This one by Kate Gagnon Osborne is from Vogue Knitting's Holiday 2009 edition.

Like all the others, this one is knit in the round and has a ribbed brim. The dark green yarn doesn't allow you to see how the travelling lace flows from the ribbed edge.

I made it for my older daughter for Christmas. I love the way it looks on her.

Jenny Cloche

2009-12-26T14:28:00.004-06:00

Not only is Knitteroo's Jenny a super-quick knit, it's also snuggly to wear. And when I say "super quick", I mean #10 needles and doubled-up Mmmmmmmmalabrigo worsted-weight. Yep, we're talking a single evening's worth of knitting. As for snuggly, this hat hugs the head very gently and fits over the ears easily, if you like.

I made this one for my younger daughter for Christmas to coordinate with her new coat. I may do a second version of this hat without the bow. Instead, how about a couple of decorative buttons or a vintage brooch?

Merry Kissmas and Season's Eatings from The Beagle's Knitting Blog!

2009-12-20T14:43:00.003-06:00

That's two of my kids - one human, one beagle. I'm the old lady behind the camera taking the photo. The hat and mittens? I knit those, you betcha! Get a better look at the hat here and the mittens here

This week before Christmas is a busy one. I hope you have a moment to stop and catch a snowflake on your tongue.

Blogging about Knitting While Watching A Movie about Blogging

2009-12-18T07:46:00.006-06:00

We watched "Julie and Julia" last night. Stanley Tucci as Paul Child was wonderful, nuanced, believeable. As for the rest of it: I didn't understand Meryl Streep's choice to portray Julia Child as a lumbering village idiot and I grew very tired of Amy Adams flailing about to grasp one shred of interest or likeability in her character.

My active dislike of this film - except for you, Mr. Tucci. You can stay. - took energy. I was talking to the screen, as in "Yeah, right Paris looked that good right after the war" and talking to my husband, as in "Do you remember people being that into Julia Child in the '70's?". (He didn't but he didn't have time to master French chefery back then.)

While watching and furrowing my brow and frowning and talking, I was also knitting. The pattern I was knitting was this:

It's the Knit Purl Sock Club kit for November/December. I seem to be all about the kits lately. This particular one is part of a very generous prize I won. The yarn is Abstract Fiber SuperSock (superwash merino. The colorway is Pinot Noir and the pattern has little grapes up near the cuff. If you click on any photo, you'll see them more clearly. You'll also see that the actual color of the Pinot Noir colorway is heavy on the noir, as compared to the pattern photo. I'm okay with that but the noir takes this sock from one to wear to a wine tasting to one worn by an Edward Gorey character as she impassively hands a poisoned glass of wine to her victim. Who can't use a sock like that, I ask?

Knitting-wise, it's a k1 tbl, p3 rib once you've done the grapes at the top. That simplicity made it a great choice for knitting while watching a netflix.

The Knit Purl kit always contains a little lagniappe of a gift. This time, it was

a very handy mini-crochet hook. It's perfect for picking up dropped stitches.

Size Does Not Matter

2009-12-12T14:33:00.004-06:00

My yarn collection got a lot more awesome today.

When Wisconsin Wool Exchange in Amherst, population 948, opened, I expected nothing. It's a small shop in a small town about 15 minutes from where I live.

The store is turning out to be a Cave of Wonders. The very nice lady stocking wool from large grocery bags she brought in? Yeah, that's none other than the proprietor of Kimmet Croft Fiber. What a thrill! She makes the go-to yarns for Bohus knitting in North America. The yarn is 30% angora for the shimmer Bohus is famous for. It's dyed to specific colors for the poetry of color Bohus is famous for.

She told me she doesn't have an internet presence by intention - it's either dye her fibers or be on the internet, time-wise, and she chooses to dye her fibers. You can call her at 1-888-BOHUS-40 or 715-421-0121.

So there Ms. Kimmet was, stocking her yarn, and behind her were kits for Bohus hats from the book, Poems of Color. I bought the kit for the Blue Shimmer Hat.

Wisconsin Wool Exchange, all 400 sq. ft. or so of it, is becoming the kind of shop that people will drive to from many states away.

Secret Knitting - Revealed!

2009-12-08T13:03:00.002-06:00

How's your Christmas knitting coming? This is one of mine, hot off the needles...

Lots of pattern, lots of color, and two layers of wool - that's how we like our hats in Wisconsin. This is the Triple-Patterned Watch Cap from Charlene Schurch's Hats On! and a clearer, better-written pattern you'd go a long way to find.

It's a Christmas present for my husband Tom. He picked out the wool at a Herrschner's warehouse sale. It's worsted-weight 100% wool yet so ...what's the nice word ...vivid a purple you'd swear it was 100% recycled plastic soda bottles. I didn't think I could do much that a man would actually put on his head but we walked around the warehouse sale, trying this yarn, then that next to the purple. It was near the back of their retail store that we found the heathered purple alpaca yarn. The way it soothes down the dark purple is like magic.

Do you love that textured herringbone braid? It's just a three-row pattern, mostly involving twisting yarn over or under as you purl first the main color, then the contrast color. I won't give away Charlene Schurch's e-z technique but here's Savannahchik's tutorial on how she does it.

Still Sock with Beagle Nose

2009-11-16T07:50:00.008-06:00

This is an Art Sock. Cable upon cable swirl down the leg and foot from a twisted-rib cuff to describe Oregon's Cascades.

a volcanic mountain range, extending from central Oregon into British Columbia. The peaks of Mt. Hood. Mt. Rainer, and Mt. Saint Helens are visible from the city of Portland, creating a picturesque horizon throughout the year. The Cascade Locks, located outside Mt. Hood, are a series of waterfalls and canals that were built during the 1870s to make the Columbia more navigable. - Knit Purl Sock Club blurb

The pattern is Cascade Locks by Sarah Worthington. The back differs from the front and, front or back, there's a lot going on here. (Click on any photo to make larger.) The front has water flowing over and under and around cables. On the back of the sock, the water flows wider and more orderly.

Sure, a person can buy socks at Target but not these socks.

More Yarn! More, More, More!

2009-11-05T14:10:00.006-06:00

Tom looked thoughtfully at his socks the other day and said, “You should get some more bamboo sock yarn. I like it the best.”

I can see why. Bamboo keeps your feet comfy year round. So, buy more yarn? Oh-kay, I can manage that.

Off I went to my favorite internet shops. I placed orders with two of them but
The Loopy Ewe wins the customer service prize, hands down. My order arrived only three days after I placed it! The owner included a handwritten thank-you for the order and a little gift of a mini-sock pattern with enough red yarn to make it up.

This one is 400 yards of 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, and 21% elastic. The Spice colorway is autumnal and happy. Doesn't it make you want to cast on right away?

Each one of these contains 328 yards. I'm thinking of something cabled, which would eat up yardage, hence the two skeins. The composition is 75% bamboo, 25% nylon.

This brand was what I used in the socks Tom referred to when he said he preferred bamboo. It's 45% bamboo (bambus auf deutsch, 40% superwash wool, and 15% polyamid, 200 meters per skein.

Shawl Fashion Show

2009-10-29T10:01:00.008-05:00

Nina and Tina's youtube about how to wear shawls without looking like your grandma has inspired me to drag out my own shawls.

At 52, it's getting easier by the day for me to look like an old lady and, although my height of 5'1" has its advantages (no legroom on a plane? no problem!), looking as good as Nina in a shawl is problematic, unless ...

Here, let me show you. I'll start with big, then go to medium, and end with the smallest shawls. Enter my dressmaking form. It's my measurements and my height.

My largest shawl is the triangular Vernal Equinox. It's knit from handspun alpaca laceweight, soft and light as a cloud. Still, it's a whole lotta lace. Trying it Nina's fabulous way...

And this is how I had better plan to actually wear it if I don't want to look like a pigeon wearing some kind of bizarre boob sling.

I have two medium-sized rectangular stoles, both knit in worsted weight and both from Cheryl Oberle's book, Folk Shawls. Unsurprisingly, both look best if worn the same way. This is the Russian-style Domovoi

and this is the Scottish-inspired North Sea...

For the two smaller shawls I've made for myself, I can use Nina's bib styling. The Phoenix Rising is Claudia's Handpaints Silk Lace and is beaded. It is considerably abbreviated from the original design, only because I wanted to be done with it. Here's a really clear picture of my Phoenix Rising, followed by the more modern-looking bib styling of it.

I love the difference! And here's Ishbel, knit in Malabrigo sock yarn. This one is actually designed to be worn as a bib. It works under my raincoat.

Watching Nina and Tina's youtube, then playing around with my own shawls on my sewing mannequin has shown me that smaller is better, if I'm making a shawl for myself.

Take 2

2009-10-22T10:27:00.006-05:00

Most patterns I knit once. There are a very few so useful or fun that I knit them twice or more.

Bird in Hand Mittens top the list of patterns I've knitted more than once. Vines, flowers, and leaves twine in and around and a little bird sits on the right thumb - you can just see his yellow beak in this photo. This go-round, they're for me. The yarn is Classic Elite Renaissance (the green) and Nashua Ivy(the white and sparkly).

Other patterns I've knit more than once:
Kitty Bath Mitt, a free pattern from lionbrand.com (I'd link you but you need to sign in to see the pattern.) It's my go-to pattern for a baby gift, especially fun if you include a copy of the Little Golden Book The Color Kittens.

The rest of the repeats are hats, all but one from free patterns:

Bobbi from Cathy Carron's Hip Hats

Fake Isle Is there a more fun use for a skein of Noro? I think not!

And I do not have a decent photo of a hat made following the construction of Coronet. I change up that cable with something Viking from Elsebeth Lavold and do it in yak yarn with two layers. Take that, Wisconsin winter!

Keepin' It Scandihoovian

2009-10-18T12:19:00.004-05:00

While waiting for the mail to bring the book on how to get the Swedish spinning wheel up and running, I thought I'd get in some knitting. Tom needed a new winter hat so I handed him my favorite collection of hat patterns, Hats on! by Charlene Schurch.

He narrowed down his favorites to three, then down to one: the Norwegian Star.

Can you believe I cast on for this Friday evening, knit through a couple of hours of Wisconsin Public Radio programming, knit a bit on Saturday afternoon and again on Saturday evening, and finished the hat on Sunday morning?

The yarn is Aussi Wool, one skein in Cherry Tomato and one in Commodore. It's "100% premium Australian wool" but the Chinese spinning job is not premium. There are occasional losely-spun clumps and even a knot, two things I do not expect in the 200-yard skein. I do love the hat pattern, though. It's clear, well-written, and has charts large enough to read with ease.

The Technology at Hand

2009-10-17T10:19:00.004-05:00

This is the way I wind yarn from a hank into a ball. There are better ways, all of which involve a swift and winder. These are at the top of my Wish List. Never used either myself but I have seen them in use at yarn stores. They do a faster and a neater job than I could ever do with just the two chairs and my two hands.

I do have an unused item of wool equipment you might like to meet. It came from Sweden to Minnesota in 1882. Here it is:
The wheel belonged to Anna Brita Dahlgren Berglund, Tom's great-grandmother from Ragunda in Jemtland, which is in central Sweden. The wheel used to be a Swedish blue. In the 1960's, one of Tom's sisters painted her turquoise. Go figure the chances that we would have also painted our fireplace turquoise several years ago.

The wheel seems to be in great shape, with all parts moving freely and smoothly. The last time I spun was almost 30 years ago. It was on a friend's wheel. Time to learn to use this one and, to that end, I have ordered a couple of books. I also have the names of several people in Wisconsin who repair old wheels, should this one be less functional than I believe.

If you have advice, please leave it in the comments. Thanks!

Time Cures Knitting Fatigue

2009-10-11T13:46:00.010-05:00

You know how it is when you've spent too long and too much effort in cooking a meal, it doesn't taste as good as you think it should? Everyone else at the table loves the food but you, the cook, you're finding fault. This is too bland; that's too salty; the one over there is too whatever.

It's how I felt about the His/Her Reversible Scarf from Cables Untangled by Melissa Leapman. The construction crosses cables on both right and wrong side rows and the work went on and on. It was a slow knit and you had to keep careful count. On and on and on it went. Really, it was like an evil scarf from a fairytale: no matter how much I knit, the end was never near.

And then, finally, one day the scarf was long enough to bind off. Oh, the happy, happy day! Knowing intellectually it had to be okay but finding endless fault with the thing, I handed off the scarf to my younger daughter. She didn't wear it much.

Which confirmed my darkest suspicions about this scarf. It was too this and it was not enough that, just like the tired cook's dinner.

And then, today, she wore it. Father Time has soothed my cable-stressed brow and that scarf looks great. It does everything it's supposed to. Forgive the photos of a project off the needles a couple of years? What a revelation it is!

To celebrate the Autumn that is well and truly upon us in Wisconsin, here is Tom and our Gang of Three (Jack the Beagle, Sally the Dowager Empress Cat, and Nala the Orange Ninja Kitty con Fuego) all curled up for a nap.